Reproduced below is The Lifestyle
Project article as published in the Journal of Geoscience Education,
v. 51, n. 5, November 2003, p. 496-499. A reprint of this article is
available as an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF® file by clicking on
the link. You can get a free copy of Adobe®
Acrobat® Reader® by clicking on the link.

The Lifestyle Project
is a way for students to learn about environmental alternatives by modifying
their own lifestyles. It is a three-week exercise for students to reduce
their impact on the environment by changing the way in which they live
from day to day. The project has fairly rigid parameters, allowing students
to achieve a gradual but definitive change in their everyday habits.
Students choose three categories from a list of six: heat, garbage,
electricity and water, driving, eating, and activism. They write about
their experiences in journals, which are incredibly insightful, illustrating
just how profoundly the project affects them. At the end of the project,
students have had an experience that may be life altering, affecting
not only the students themselves, but also their friends and families.
We felt that we unexpectedly stumbled across a real solution to an environmental
problem.

The Lifestyle Project
was created in 1993, borne out of a physical geology class discussion
about Earth’s resources that left students and teachers alike
wondering about a creative approach to environmental awareness. The
project was conceptualized rather hastily and was presented to the students
during the following class. The vast majority of the students loved
the idea and opted to take on the challenge. What followed was quite
an amazing experience in education, wherein we all came face to face
with our personal environmental decisions and experienced both triumphs
and frustrations. When we read the students’ journals that recorded
their actions, thoughts and feelings throughout the Lifestyle Project,
we were incredibly moved. Over the years the Lifestyle Project has been
modified, offered in an additional course, and taught by several instructors.
It has become a fixture in both our physical geology and environmental
science courses.

OUTLINE
OF THE PROJECT

The Lifestyle Project
asks each student to choose three different ways in which they are interested
in changing their habits. The possible categories are: use of electricity
and water, heat, automobile usage, food consumption, waste production
and environmental education or activism. For each category the rules
are clearly defined, such as turning down the heat three degrees or
eliminating the use of the car. Each week the project becomes more rigorous,
as the students have to meet the requirements more frequently. For example,
during the first week of the project students who have chosen the automobile
usage category must spend two days without driving their car. Instead
they must seek alternatives such as the campus bus, walking or bicycling.
During the second week they must forego the comforts of their cars for
three days. For the third and final week, they must leave their cars
parked for four days. The idea is a gradual but definite change that
follows a structure, rather than simply telling the students to drive
their cars less.

METHODS
OF INCORPORATING THE LIFESTYLE PROJECT

For the project
to be successful, some context should be provided within the course.
This can be achieved several ways. Three options are presented here,
which can be used alone or in combination. The critical point is that
when the project begins the students need to be eager to take on the
challenges. Otherwise they will not have enough incentive to really
try out the alternatives that the project offers them.

Originally the
project was introduced in a laboratory discussion about energy resources.
We set up a mock town meeting to discuss a fictional campus-wide energy
shortage and how to overcome it. Faced with the idea of adding a coal
burning or nuclear power plant, or the complications of carpeting the
campus with solar cells, the students realize that no form of energy
is without significant environmental impacts. The notion of conservation
arises during the discussion, and the students are challenged to see
for themselves if conservation can really work.

Alternatively,
the project can be introduced with a baseline assessment. The students
are asked to rate their environmental impacts, and then to take an Eco-rating
Quiz. The quiz is a multiple-choice questionnaire relating to the categories
included in the lifestyle project. At the end of the quiz the students
score themselves so that the feedback is immediate and often shocking.
Very few of the students have a low score indicating a low environmental
impact.

Another way to
introduce the project is quantitatively. The students are provided with
worksheets to record their consumption of energy, water and food, and
production of waste for two days. After the students have recorded their
activities, they are given spreadsheets so their records can be converted
into BTUs of energy, gallons of water and pounds of garbage. We provide
them with all the formulae and conversions they need to complete the
calculations (available at http://www.skidmore.edu/~jthomas/lifestyleproject),
but they collect the data, do the calculations, and analyze the results.
The figures are eye-opening and students begin thinking about their
impacts on the environment.

The Lifestyle Project
assignment is then introduced to the students. The assignment reflects
the changes we’ve made to it over the years, but the categories
or details can be changed or modified to fit a particular course, audience
or campus.

THE LIFESTYLE
PROJECT AS IT IS PRESENTED TO THE STUDENTS

Our discussions
in class have left us thinking about changes we could make in our lifestyle
that would be beneficial to the environment, would be realistic to make,
and might even improve the quality of our lives.

The rules:

1. The idea of
this project is to make changes in your lifestyle that will have a beneficial
effect on the environment. The changes aren’t difficult, but they
are significant. Mostly they will require planning and thinking about
your actions.

2. You will slowly
increase the degree or frequency of the changes, week by week, for a
total period of three weeks. You can pick which days will count as your
“project days.”

3. You will keep
a journal with entries for each day that you complete your project requirements.

4. For whatever
reason, you can bail out part way through and complete an alternative
assignment instead.

5. The Lifestyle
Project involves making changes to your personal lifestyle. If you feel
that these changes might negatively affect your health, happiness, and
well being in any way, or if they conflict with your religious or philosophical
beliefs, then you may choose another assignment.

Choose any three
categories from the six choices below. Don’t pick something that
you already normally do, as the idea of this project is to make changes.
Some changes won’t be possible in your particular living situation,
so obviously you can’t pick those.

The Categories:

1. HEAT - Expand
your comfort zone by turning your heat down 3 degrees Fahrenheit from
its normal setting. Continue lowering the heat by 3 degrees every week
until you have reduced it by 9 degrees at the end of three weeks. The
heat reduction applies for the entire week. This option is limited to
those who have control over their own thermostats and who have cooperative
housemates!

2. GARBAGE - Spend
each project day producing no waste at all. You will have two waste-free
days the first week, then three days the second week and four days for
the last week. The idea of reducing your input to landfills follows
a certain hierarchy. The best thing is to reduce the amount of garbage
you make by simply using less, buying less, and wasting less. The second
option is to reuse whatever you can to avoid buying new things that
will eventually end up as garbage. Recycling is the last option, to
be used only when the first two options fail. So on your waste-free
days you must live by these rules, and not contribute anything to the
landfill on those days. Even though some types of plastics are recyclable,
if you aren’t able to recycle a particular type of plastic, it
counts as garbage. Make sure you write on both sides of the paper, make
copies only when necessary, and use the backs of old paper instead of
using a fresh sheet. It is considered cheating to just hang on to something
until you’re given waste-free days pass, and then throw it out.
Toilet paper does not count as garbage; it goes to the wastewater treatment
plant, not the landfill. Cigarette butts are exempt from this category
as well, because quitting smoking is beyond the scope of this project.
However, all butts must be put in the garbage can, not on the ground
or out your car window.

3. ELECTRICITY
AND WATER - Trim the fat off your excess energy consumption by reducing
your water and electricity needs by at least 50%. To do this, you can
do the following things: turn the lights off when you're not around;
turn on only one light instead of two; study next to a window; leave
the TV and the stereo off; cook meals that don't require lots of burners
at once or long cooking times; use the microwave instead of the stove
or oven; take a shower at half the usual duration; turn the water down
in the shower so it's not full blast; take a cooler shower; don't leave
the water running while washing, shaving, brushing your teeth, or washing
dishes; skip the blow dryer and electric razor; don't use any unnecessary
appliances; run the washing machine and dishwasher only when totally
full; and hang laundry to dry instead of using the dryer. If you do
all of these things it is possible to cut your consumption by 50% or
more. The first week, you'll do this on two days, and you will add one
more day each week, until you have four days for the last week.

4. LEAVE THE CAR
AT HOME - Experience the thrill of the outdoors by riding your bike,
walking or taking the bus in your daily travels. Hitching a ride with
your friends or roommates does reduce the amount of driving, but is
also just too easy, so avoid that option unless there are no other alternatives.
You will start with two days and increase the number of car-free days
per week by one, until you have four days of bike riding (or whatever)
during the last week.

5. EAT EFFICIENTLY
- The production of meat requires a large amount of water and energy,
and also produces considerable waste. Approximately ninety percent of
the grain grown in the US is fed to livestock. If you ate the grain
crop directly, instead of the livestock, you would be using resources
more efficiently. For example, 16 pounds of grain fed to beef cattle
produces only one pound of edible meat (Cunningham and Saigo, 1999).
The majority of the calorie content is used up by the animal for metabolism.
This means that you ingest only about 6% of the original calories produced
by the grain crop. Another way of looking at this is by the amount of
water required to produce different foods. For example, it takes 160
gallons of water to produce a loaf of bread, but it takes 2,500 gallons
of water to produce one pound of beef (Cunningham and Saigo, 1999).
By reducing the amount of meat that we eat, we can have a smaller environmental
impact. So, for your first week, spend two days feasting on healthy
and delicious fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains, and yes, even cheese
doodles; just cut out the meat on these days. Add one vegetarian day
each week, until you have four days by the end of the project. You should
also be very vigilant about not wasting food during the project. Think
of all the resources that go into the production of the food that are
wasted if food is thrown out.

Note: If you eat
a balanced diet otherwise, you don’t need to worry about getting
enough protein without meat. An average adult needs about 40 grams of
protein per day (Cunningham and Saigo, 1999). Vegetarian sources of
protein include whole grain bread (4 g per slice), beans (7 g per serving),
pasta (7 g per serving), peanut butter (7 g per serving) and yogurt
(11 g per cup). In any case, you should consult a physician or nutritionist
before making changes to your diet or if you have any questions about
your ability to complete this aspect of the project.

6. CREATE YOUR
OWN CATEGORY - There are many different things that you can do to lessen
your impact on the environment or to have a positive effect on the environment.
Be creative and come up with your own way of making a difference. You
could write letters to your senators, volunteer with the Sierra Club,
spend time cleaning up the woods, set up a carpooling system or recycling
system in your dorm or workplace, find ways to educate others about
the importance of conservation, or change your lifestyle in a way not
described in the categories above. Invent your own category and discuss
it with your instructor before the project starts.

THE LIFESTYLE
PROJECT JOURNAL

The students keep
a journal of their activities in the project with one entry for each
day of participation. Journal entries include exactly what they did
to meet the requirements of the project, such as their thermostat temperature,
the length of their showers, their mode of transportation and their
diet. Students are also asked to describe how the lifestyle changes
affected them. Reading the journals has become one of the highlights
of the semester. It’s a real privilege to gain insights into the
actions, thoughts, and lives of the students. Often a student will write
a long saga about the attempt to make it through 24 hours without producing
garbage by avoiding over-wrapped junk food, using a cloth towel instead
of paper towels, writing on the back sides of junk mail paper, only
to be foiled by a late-night fast food wrapper and a pile of greasy
napkins. The journals are collected weekly and returned within two days.
The instructor writes plenty of comments, suggestions and encouragement
in the journals. Students are encouraged to make the journals themselves
environmentally-friendly, so they are often e-mailed, or written on
the back sides of scrap paper, or constructed entirely of materials
that were destined for the landfill. The journals are also the basis
for grading the project. For each week of the project the journals are
graded out of 10 points. There is usually a homework assignment added
to the project each week, such as calculating the BTUs for shower use
or computer time. The weekly grade is based on the completion of the
homework assignment and also on the quality of the journal and the degree
to which the student is adhering to the project. It is difficult to
assign a letter grade for something so subjective, but some criteria
include the effort the student puts forth, the depth to which the students
describe the details of their project, their sincerity and the commitment
they demonstrate.

THE ACTIVIST
PROJECT – ANOTHER PROJECT OPTION

This option is
offered to students who are interested in becoming more active in campus
environmental issues. The activist project provides an alternate project
for students who feel they already lead an environmentally sound lifestyle,
or for students that are not interested in changing their personal lifestyle.
Students are encouraged to investigate an environmental issue on campus.
Examples include junk mail overflowing from campus mailboxes, waste
reduction from the dining halls and campus recycling. Before embarking
on a project, students meet with the instructor to help them organize
their plan and generate solutions. Students use weekly journals to record
their plans, meetings, phone calls, and any roadblocks that they encounter.
At the completion of the project, students give a short presentation
to the class about the results of their efforts.

RESULTS

The impact of the
project is greater than we could ever have expected. The students don’t
realize what they are getting into at the start. It looks easy, but
it is not! The most compelling way to illustrate the results of the
project are with the students’ words themselves. At the beginning
of the project, students reflect on their typical lifestyles, “I
love long, hot showers, and I listen to my stereo and watch TV constantly.
I leave Christmas lights on in my room most of the time because I don’t
like coming home to a dark room.” “My thermostat is usually
set at 85 degrees because I am from Florida.” “My car is
my life. In two years I put seventy thousand miles on it.” The
first week of the project is difficult for students, many of who have
never conceived of the idea of conservation until now. “My general
mentality was really challenged. I was constantly stopping myself from
doing things I do everyday. By the end of the day I was questioning
everything I did.” The project challenges the students to come
up with new alternatives to their usual habits. “As we were headed
to the parking lot to drive downtown I realized it was a project day
and I couldn’t use my car. At first I was upset that I couldn’t
just do what I wanted, but then I decided to walk and my friends agreed
to walk with me. We ended up having a nice walk and just had some time
to relax and talk.” The students become suddenly awakened to the
impacts of their everyday habits. “It seems impossible to not
produce garbage for even one day. At first it didn’t sound like
a big deal, but after trying it for just this first day I realized just
how much garbage I normally produce! It’s embarrassing!”

As the project
continues and becomes more rigorous, students find themselves defining
new habits and rituals. “Today I cut my showering time down to
four minutes. I don’t know how I used to spend 20 minutes in the
shower. What ever did I used to do in there?” “I actually
had to catch myself at least three times between Wednesday and Thursday
where I just lazily kept the water running. As corny as this sounds,
I stood there looking at the drain while brushing my teeth and felt
badly that all that water had gone down – unused.”

The effects of
the project spread further as the project goes on. The students are
excited to share their new habits and ideas with roommates, friends
and family. “When I went home for break I went around the house
turning off the lights and my Dad just about fell over. He said he’s
been yelling at me all my life to stop leaving lights on and now I was
reminding him to turn them off!” As the lifestyle project progresses
into the third week, the students are usually seeking more and more
ways to conserve. “I have noticed that a lot of the sinks drip
in the dorm bathrooms. Using my plumbing skills learned from my father
I tightened the washers and a few other gadgets. Now, there isn’t
a single drippy faucet in Kimball Hall.”

There are many
additional benefits offered by living a simplified and conservation-oriented
lifestyle, such as increased self-esteem, health benefits and economics.
“This whole new routine, by the way, was a major accomplishment
for me, and after it happened I was psyched!” “I didn’t
buy snacks at the school store. I got an apple instead because it’s
healthier, cheaper, doesn’t come in packaging, it’s locally
grown and transported in reusable wooden crates, not bags.”

The students also
realize that the steps they are taking do add up and make a difference.
It becomes evident that their actions are potential solutions to environmental
problems. “I think it is amazing that I was able to not produce
garbage for nine days during the project while the average American
creates over four pounds of garbage each day. It did require some planning,
but I did not find it that difficult, and I think it is definitely worth
that small amount of effort. If everyone put in a little effort to reduce
their garbage, it would make a tremendous amount of difference in the
environment.”

The students meet
the end of the project with mixed emotions. They are relieved to regain
their freedom, but are sad to no longer be challenged by the project.
Yet it is nearly universal that they express a new and unshakeable awareness
for how their decisions and actions affect the environment. “I
am so aware now that I cringe when I see lights on that shouldn’t
be, and when people take more napkins than they need. Will I always
be like this?” “The first few days of participation were
difficult because the initial breaking of habits is the hardest part.
As the days passed, and more changes were required of me, the first
changes became habit. Now it seems that I have picked up a whole bunch
of new habits. However they’re good habits for a change. I never
thought I would develop habits that were actually good for me and good
for the earth as well.” “All of the categories I picked
seem so easy and trivial now, although they seemed almost impossible
at the start.” “I find it painfully ironic that a class
I took only to fulfill the science requirement will have a stronger
impact on how I actually live my life, day to day, than any other class
I’ve taken.”

The results of
the activist projects have also been very positive. Student projects
have lead to a renewal of a campus-wide recycling program and periodic
improvements in recycling. One student did a project on composting dining
room waste. He then did a semester long independent study on the same
subject. He became the campus composting expert and investigated various
ways to compost waste. The end result will be a self-contained composting
facility on campus that will be a highly visible environmental project.
In addition to reducing waste, the compost will also reduce the use
of artificial fertilizers on campus. One of the apartments in a campus
development has been converted to an Environmental Lifestyle living
unit. The residents of the house have an organic garden and collect
composting material from all the other apartments in the complex. Several
students have worked in the North Woods, a wooded laboratory area north
of the main campus, to monitor or mitigate human impacts. Some have
worked with local environmental groups and then gone on to intern with
them.

CONCLUSION

We have found the
Lifestyle Project to be an invaluable part of our Physical Geology and
Environmental Science courses. To be most successful, the project requires
a commitment from the instructors as well as the students. To keep the
momentum up throughout the project, we provide encouraging feedback
in the journals, we do the project ourselves, and we relate environmental
tips to the class throughout the project. At the end of the project,
rough calculations are presented to the class to show them how much
energy they saved collectively. After ten years and over one thousand
students, the quantity of resources saved is truly impressive. In the
end, the educational and environmental experience of the lifestyle project
is quite valuable for everyone involved.
Even though our lectures range in size from 60-120 students, we often
keep in close contact with the students after the end of the classes.
Many of the students keep up their lifestyle changes after the project
is over. We have heard many anecdotal stories about how the Lifestyle
Project is still affecting the habits of the students. In a 1996 survey
of students who had completed the project during the previous three
years, 81% reported they had changed their habits in permanent ways.
But, yes, there is a minority of students who drive across campus to
eat a hamburger the minute the project is over.

For more information
on the lifestyle project, please visit the web site at http://www.skidmore.edu/~jthomas/lifestyleproject.
The web site includes materials used to introduce the lifestyle project,
spreadsheets to calculate energy and water use, the project assignment
and variations of the project, and results of a post-project student
survey.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost
we must acknowledge all of the students who have participated in the
Lifestyle Project. They took on the challenges and made the experience
much more than we would have expected. Other Skidmore faculty who have
participated in the courses in which we use the Lifestyle Project are
Judith A. Halstead, Associate Professor of Chemistry; Steven T. Frey,
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, and Kimberly A. Marsella, Teaching
Associate in Geosciences.

Karin B. Kirk graduated
from Skidmore College in 1990 majoring in Geology. She then worked in
groundwater remediation, returning to Skidmore in 1993 as a Teaching
Associate for John J. Thomas. John is Professor Emeritus of Geology
recently retired from Skidmore College after 34 years as a faculty member.
They worked together teaching Physical Geology and Environmental Science
courses. John encouraged Karin to go as far and be as creative with
her teaching as she wanted. As a team they worked to improve everything
they taught, and had a great time in the process. Karin has a B.A. from
Skidmore College and an M.S. from Montana State University. John has
a B.A. from Williams College, an M.S. from Northwestern University,
and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. All of their degrees are
in Geology. Both John and Karin have long been involved in environmental
matters from their own lifestyles to studying groundwater resources
for the cities of Saratoga Springs, NY and Bozeman, MT.